environmental activists - The Art of the Prank

August 30, 2017December 15, 2023

Studio KCA Turns Pollution into Provocation

The Brooklyn artists once again sculpt an environmental statement.

“Kauai plastic going into Belgian sculpture”
by Jessica Else
The Garden Island
August 23, 2017

Plastic from Kauai”™s beaches is going to Belgium where it will become part of a 30-foot tall blue whale sculpture.

It”™s all part of Brooklyn-based Studio KCA”™s project to create larger than life reminders of human impacts to the environment, and most of the materials for the sculpture are coming from Kauai.

“A lot of our plastic waste is collecting in Hawaii “” the northern part of Kauai and the southern part of Hawaii Island,” said Jason Klimoski, co-owner of Studio KCA.

Klimoski and his partner Lesley Chang are also gathering plastic from the United States”™ west coast and east coast for the project.

Klimoski and Chang are architects and artists who got their start in gigantic sculptures with eco-friendly messages in 2013 with a sculpture on Governor”™s Island, New York. Read more.

July 26, 2017December 15, 2023

Belgian Performance Artists, Captain Boomer, Beach a Whale in Paris

Nobody expected to see a whale beached along the Seine last Friday…

“Elaborate “˜Dead Whale”™ Stunt Takes Parisians By Surprise”
by Nina Golgowski
Huffington Post
July 23, 2017

It wasn”™t a sight for the fainthearted.

On Friday, Parisians woke to find a massive sperm whale beached along the river Seine, drawing some shock and concern from some passersby.

Fortunately for animal lovers, the giant carcass, which was seen being tended to by people in white jumpsuits, was a fake “• though the object of a very real concern.

Belgian artist collective Captain Boomer, which took responsibility for the stirring display, said they carried out the performance art to raise awareness about the beaching of whales and dolphins and how humans play a role.

To assist in delivering this message, artists dressed up like forensic scientists and pretended to perform tests on the animal while others interacted with the public. Continue reading “Belgian Performance Artists, Captain Boomer, Beach a Whale in Paris”

December 23, 2013December 15, 2023

Protestors Accused of Terrorism Hoax

Glitter-Covered Banner Got These Protesters Arrested for Staging a Bioterror Hoax
by Molly Redden
Mother Jones
December 17, 2013

Energy giants have lobbied police to treat environmental activists like potential terrorists. Looks like it’s working.

glitter-protest

It’s not uncommon for environmental protesters to face arrest, but here’s an apparent first: On Friday, Oklahoma City police charged a pair of environmental activists with staging a “terrorism hoax” after they unfurled a pair of banners covered in glitter””a substance local cops considered evidence of a faux biochemical assault.

Stefan Warner and Moriah Stephenson, members of the environmental group Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance, were part of a group of about a dozen activists demonstrating at Devon Tower, the headquarters of fossil fuel giant Devon Energy. They activists were protesting the company’s use of fracking, its role in mining of Canada’s tar sands, and its ties to TransCanada, the energy company planning to construct the Keystone XL pipeline. As other activists blocked the building’s revolving door, Warner and Stephenson hung two banners””one a cranberry-colored sheet emblazoned with The Hunger Games “mockingjay” symbol and the words “The odds are never in our favor” in gold letters””from the second floor of the Devon Tower’s atrium.

Continue reading “Protestors Accused of Terrorism Hoax”

May 13, 2009December 15, 2023

Environmental Activists Recruited as Spies?

From Cell to Sell: Police Recruit Activists as Spies
PRWatch.org
May 12, 2009

Source: The Guardian (UK), April 27, 2009
activists-200 In Scotland, police have been offering environmentalists money in return for information about activist groups. “They said ‘if you help us, we will help you,'” one anti-nuclear activist stated, referring to military police officers. The The Guardian reports that “a network of hundreds of informants … claim to have infiltrated a number of environmental groups,” providing police with “information about leaders, tactics and plans of future demonstrations.” One of the groups targeted by police, Plane Stupid, was previously infiltrated by a corporate spy. A police statement stressed their “responsibility to gather intelligence,” saying contacts were made “to ensure that any future protest activity is carried out within the law.” Plane Stupid responded, “Our civil liberties were invaded and our right to peaceful protest called into question simply to defend the interests of big business.” Scotland’s Sunday Herald reports that the covert police campaign goes back to at least 2005, when military police set up “cosy chats” with people arrested during a protest at a nuclear arms site.

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